Marcos Valle

Copacabana

Marcos Kostenbader Valle was born in Rio de Janeiro on 14 September 1943, the son of a lawyer, Eurico Paulo Valle, and Liselotte Valle. The family lived near Copacabana beach. He started piano at five and studied piano and classical music for thirteen years, and in 1963 Antônio Carlos Jobim moved in across the street. He began a law degree at PUC-Rio but left in his second year.

By 1961 he was playing in a trio with Edu Lobo and Dori Caymmi and writing songs with his brother Paulo Sérgio Valle, who would be his main lyricist for most of his career. The Tamba Trio recorded his Sonho de Maria in 1963, and his debut LP, Samba Demais, came out on Odeon. O Compositor e o Cantor (1965) included Samba de Verão. As Summer Samba it went into the US Top 40 for Walter Wanderley in 1966, and it has since been recorded by everyone from Dizzy Gillespie to Emma Bunton.

America and Odeon

From 1965 he spent about seven months touring the United States with Sérgio Mendes's Brasil '65 and appeared on The Andy Williams Show. He made Braziliance! for Warner Bros and then Samba '68 for Verve, English-language versions arranged by Eumir Deodato, before fear of the Vietnam draft took him home.

Back at Odeon he made a run of albums from Mustang Côr de Sangue (1969) to a second self-titled record with Som Imaginário (1974), taking in Garra, Vento Sul with O Terço, and Previsão do Tempo (1973), made with members of Azymuth and the one he names as his favorite. Azymuth took their name from his song Azimuth and call him their godfather. He also wrote for television, including the full score of Selva de Pedra (1972) and music for Vila Sésamo.

Los Angeles and Estrelar

In 1975, uneasy with the government at home, he moved to Los Angeles and stopped playing live for about five years. There he worked with Chicago, Airto Moreira and Sarah Vaughan, singing Something on her Songs of the Beatles. In 1979 Robert Lamm of Chicago asked him to help write Love Is a Simple Thing, which brought him together with Leon Ware.

Back in Rio he made records for Som Livre. Vontade de Rever Você (1981), made with Ware and Chicago's Peter Cetera and partly recorded with Chicago, was in John Bush's words for AllMusic an excellent example of boogie-funk samba. Its follow-up, the self-titled Marcos Valle, produced by Lincoln Olivetti and Paulo Sérgio, caught a country moving back toward democracy. Valle said he wanted to write good, happy music for a time worth celebrating. Its opening track, Estrelar, became the song of the Brazilian summer and sold about 90,000 copies, and Bicicleta was another hit in 1984.

It was a happy time, something to celebrate.

Marcos Valle, Double J, 2022

Rediscovery

After Tempo da Gente (1986) he mostly composed for film and television. In the 1990s London dance floors found his records again. The magazine Straight No Chaser named him Man of the Moment in 1995, reissues followed in Europe and Japan, and Nova Bossa Nova (1998) began a long relationship with the London label Far Out Recordings. Escape, Contrasts, Jet-Samba (which won a Prêmio TIM for best instrumental album), Estática and Sempre followed, then Cinzento (2020), Marcos Valle JID003 with Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and Túnel Acústico (2024), produced by Daniel Maunick. A 1978 demo with Leon Ware's vocals was reworked as Feels So Good.

Now married to the singer Patricia Alvi, he still tours: Australia with Azymuth in 2022, a sold-out show at Cine Joia in São Paulo in 2024 with Emicida, Céu, Moreno Veloso and Rashid, and London and Seattle in 2026. Tom Misch is a fan who has worked with him, and Planet Hemp sampled his Mentira.